zlacker

>>dredmo+(OP)
I've been finding that the strangest part of discussions around art AI among technical people is the complete lack of identification or empathy: it seems to me that most computer programmers should be just as afraid as artists, in the face of technology like this!!! I am a failed artist (read, I studied painting in school and tried to make a go at being a commercial artist in animation and couldn't make the cut), and so I decided to do something easier and became a computer programmer, working for FAANG and other large companies and making absurd (to me!!) amounts of cash. In my humble estimation, making art is vastly more difficult than the huge majority of computer programming that is done. Art AI is terrifying if you want to make art for a living- and, if AI is able to do these astonishingly difficult things, why shouldn't it, with some finagling, also be able to do the dumb, simple things most programmers do for their jobs?

The lack of empathy is incredibly depressing...

>>meebob+kc
If "making art is vastly more difficult than the huge majority of computer programming that is done" - then I'm sorry, you must not be doing very difficult computer programming.

>>knight+mr
what's the most difficult art project you've produced?

Comparing these is very "apples and oranges", but I think you'd better have a strong background in both if you're gonna try.

>>NateEa+DM
I have a strong background in both and I think creating good art is worlds more difficult than writing good code. It's both technically difficult and intellectually challenging to create something that people actually want to look at. Learning technical skills like draughtsmanship is harder than learning programming because you can't just log onto a free website and start getting instant & accurate feedback on your work. I do agree that it's very apples and oranges though - creating art requires a level of intuition and emotion that's mostly absent from technical pursuits like programming, and this very distinction is both the reason technical people can be so dismissive of the arts AND the reason why I think making art is ultimately more difficult.

>>Cadmiu+gW1
I was raised a lit and music nerd, then staggered into CS in college because it was a creative discipline that could pay bills.

Twenty years down the pike I've gotten pretty solid at programming, certainly not genius-level but competent.

I agree strongly that making art anyone cares anout is massively harder than being a competent programmer. In both you need strong technical abilities to be effective, but intuition and a deep grasp of human psychology are really crucial in art - almost table stakes.

Because software dev is usually practical, a craft, you can get paid decently with far less brilliance and fire than will suffice to make an artist profitable.

...though perhaps the DNN code assist tools will change that soon.